1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a network technology, and more particularly, to a method, apparatus, and computer program product for testing a network system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Doing business over the Internet is more and more common. Internet transactions are mainly conducted through web browsers and web servers using the hyper-text-transfer protocol (HTTP).
The hyper-text-transfer protocol is the technical foundation of the World Wide Web (WWW). With this protocol, information is transferred and displayed from one computer to another. The files containing the information are usually written in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The files also include identifiers, for example, Universal Resource Locators (URL). The HTML language includes commands executed by a program at the receiving computer. The program at the receiving computer is typically known as a browser. The browser can display information from another computer in an HTML file and can return user information to the program sending the HTML file. The computers sending HTML files and the files corresponding to URLs within the HTML files are typically known as servers.
In response to a browser request for a page, a server sends corresponding multiple HTML files. When the HTML files are received by the computer executing the browser, each communication stack layer performs its function. A datastream which contains an HTTP header and corresponding data segment is provided to the browser.
One of the data fields included in the HTTP header of an HTML file is a “cookie” data field. When receiving an HTML file with a cookie, the browser can store the cookie data. On the other hand, after the cookie data is sent to the browser computer, subsequent messages sent from the browser to the server can be returned to the server in the HTTP header.
Session connection technology is one of the foundations of the present invention. A unique session ID is generated when a new session is started. Within the same session, all embedded links in the response page can then be stamped with the same session ID. As long as the user stays in the links of the first page or pages generated from links in the first page, the session continues. However, when a session's age reaches the lifetime set by the server, the session expires.
With the rising popularity of the Internet, there is considerable demand for replacing the old server system with a new server system. Whether the new server system can be operated smoothly under the traffic model of the old server system is a concern. For example, an internet bank plans to replace their backend database from a first kind of database to a second kind of database, wherein the first kind of database and the second kind of database, respectively, belong to different vendors and technology categories. Thus, it is an important issue for the supplier of the second kind of database and the internet bank to evaluate and test the second kind of database to determine whether it can work well in the on-line production/existing system.
One approach to the above issue is a brute force approach, including running all possible test cases manually or using test automation tools. In this approach, the user in the production/existing server may sense an unusual situation when testing. Further, the test cases cannot cover all possible situations, and extra testing manpower is wasted.
Thus, when evaluating and testing the new server system to determine whether the new server system can work well with the on-line production/existing system, the following issues are important: the end user should not be able to detect any changes happening in the on-line production/existing system, a developer should not need to add any code snippets to the internet application program, and the testing method should be able to verify the traffic patterns in the real network.